This article originally appeared in the July issue of NCGA Golf Magazine
Blind Golfer Jeremy Poincenot Shares Inspirational Message with NCGA Club Reps
When he sets up to tee off, 36-year-old Torrance resident Jeremy Poincenot looks just like anybody else.
What’s different, however, is that you’ll see his father, Lionel, crouching a few feet behind him. Then, you’ll hear some directions from Lionel being softly spoken out—“One step left, two right. OK, got it. On line.”
Seconds later, Jeremy begins his backswing and fires away.
The two have been working together from tee to green on the course this way for nearly 20 years now.
It was never planned. But things change.
At the age of 19, Jeremy began losing his vision. At the time a sophomore at San Diego State, he’d end up being diagnosed with Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), a very rare genetic disorder that causes sudden loss of central vision and affects roughly 1 in 50,000 people. Over the next two months, he’d become legally blind and, understandably, sink into depression.
But it wasn’t too long before things changed again. This time, Poincenot got a pair of invitations that would again alter his path. For one, his mother Lissa, who played with Lionel, suggested to Jeremy that he try playing in tournaments for blind players. Lionel followed that up by beginning to ask if Jeremy wanted to start joining him at the driving range.
“Those were two gamechangers,” Jeremy said. “My mom finding the U.S. Blind Golf Association and my dad inviting me to go to the range. I turned him down the first time. Then we went, and I felt ready to hit balls. I didn’t see the ball flight, but I got that feel when you flush the ball. It felt good.”
Today, Poincenot carries an impressive 10 Handicap Index and has three world championships and nine national blind titles on his playing resume’.
But it’s become more important about the message that Poincenot is carrying and hoping to share: Alone We Are Limited, Together We Are Limitless.
In making his journey from one who can see to being blind, he’s found a new vision. And that is to hopefully inspire others.
In June, Jeremy, now an inspirational speaker (jeremypoincenot.com), did just that, addressing a group of NCGA Club representatives at NCGA headquarters in Pebble Beach.
“My question now is, what does strength really look like?”, Jeremy told the audience. “To me, it’s about asking for help.”
As part of his presentation to the club representatives, Poincenot shared some of the personal mantras that have helped guide him along the way. Among them: Be Grateful. Suspend Judgment. Perspective About Our Situation.
He also utilizes what he calls the SEE Method: 1) Seek help 2) Embrace help and 3) Extend help.
“There is a real power to interdependence,” he stressed. "People can do more together than they can on their own.”
Like his life, his game also changed. Jeremy notes that when he had vision, the hardest part was any shot inside 100 yards. It’s now his short game around the greens.
“I now know what my 65-yard swing is, my 75-yard swing is by feel. I am better at that now,” he said. “Chipping is the hardest part for me now. I can go out and mash a driver and putt. But chipping is finesse, which is a totally different part of golf. Your score can go up so fast if you are not chipping well.”
Poincenot certainly still has game. During his visit to Pebble Beach, he managed to get in a special father-son round at Cypress Point Club. On Leo’s birthday, nonetheless. Jeremy shot 85 and even made a mulligan par on the world-famous par-3 16th (his first tee shot went in the ocean).
“Cypress Point was an incredible sensory experience,” Poincenot said. “I could smell the seals, hear the seals, and I could hear the waves crashing. And I can see well enough that I was able to see the crashing waves on holes Nos. 16 and 17. It was unbelievable.”
Cypress Point had its own legend, the late former head pro Jim Langley, who lost one of his arms in a tragic car accident near San Jose. Langley would later tell others about his own experience, “I’d rather have had the accident happen to me than someone else.”
For Poincenot, it’s a similar story. With the same resulting attitude.
“We need to open our eyes to what we already have,” he said.